Li Yao was dumbfounded. He gestured for Jin Tuyi to stop. "Wait. Senior Jin, you are not indicating that you have been planning to turn demons into human beings since decades ago, are you? At that time, you couldn't have known the existence of the Divine Blood of Chaos at all!"
Jin Tuyi coughed slightly and said, "First of all, I never said that I was trying to turn demons into human beings. In fact, I feel that the current 'old demons' and 'old human beings' are all deeply flawed and far from 'the best fighting species in the universe'. They cannot find a way out of the dark forest as you described.
"In that regard, Elder Nether Spring and I thought the same again. The only difference was that the approaches he adopted were more radical.
"If I ever have the chance, I really want to capture Elder Nether Spring alive and then have an overnight talk with him under the starry sky. That will be so much more fun than conversing with an ignorant young man such as yourself!
"Secondly, I naturally didn't know the existence of 'Chaos' or the whole truth about the origins of the demon race decades ago. Also, I did not know that the demons could be completely transformed into human beings through the Divine Blood of Chaos.
"However, demons are themselves a very strange race.
"No matter how vastly different our appearances are, we all boast tremendous features of human beings. We are almost like 'upgraded' versions of human beings with all kinds of extra organs.
"Besides, the offspring of demons are basically devoid of any features of demons. They are just like human infants.
"For the high-level demons, after preliminary training, they will immediately grasp the ability to transform into the appearance of human beings. It seems to be not a skill but a naturally-endowed talent!
"We are not blind. Faced with such facts, have we really never considered the relationship between demons and human beings?
"Perhaps everybody has, but they did not dare to pursue the question any further, except for me and Elder Nether Spring.
"At that time, I didn't know anything about the Divine Blood of Chaos. But since part of the high-level demons could transform into human beings, and the chaotic-blood demons were similar to human beings in appearance in the first place, it was not entirely impossible to integrate them into the civilization of human beings and initiate a certain degree of communication and study, thereby finding out the road of renaissance for our race.
"This is the original purpose of the Red Tide Plan.
"The Red Tide Plan has never been a simple plan of attack. It is the beginning of a series of plans.
"What you are seeing right now is just the first phase of the Red Tide Plan, which has two purposes.
"Firstly, to seize supreme power of the Blood Demon Sector so that the entire Blood Demon Sector will follow my will. This is the most important step. What I am doing will not be understood or supported by the majority. Therefore, I must hold unchallengeable autocratic power!
"Secondly, to establish a channel of communication with the Heaven's Origin Sector, or rather, to force the Heaven's Origin Sector to sit down and talk!
"Under normal circumstances, the Heaven's Origin Sector would never sit down and negotiate with the 'inhumane demons that are mutants of demon beasts'.
"But what if a knife has been placed on their neck?
"The Eye of Blood Demon is the core of the first phase of the Red Tide Plan."
Li Yao's eyes were bulging wider and wider. "On the first day you established the Eye of Blood Demon, you had already planned to destroy it one day?
"The Eye of Blood Demon was born for unparalleled destruction?
"But it doesn't sound right. My arrival was an accident. How were you certain that you could destroy the Eye of Blood Demon at the critical moment if I didn't exist?"
"In my original plan, I, of course, had other arrangements," Jin Tuyi said coldly. "Appointing two specialists who were at loggerheads as the maintainers of the stabilization system was just one of them.
"But it wouldn't have mattered at all whether or not I could destroy the Eye of Blood Demon at the critical moment. In fact, I never thought to completely destroy it.
"I only needed to teleport the first wave of attack, preferably the second and the third, too, to the capital city of the Star Glory Federation. Then, I would cause damage that was not serious but enough to make it malfunction for one to two days.
"One or two days would be enough for the Heaven's Origin Sector to realize what was going on. Hundreds of Cultivators in the Core Formation Stage and the Nascent Soul Stage would reinforce the capital city. Without the support of the follow-up troops, the helpless demon emperors would be destined to die in the Heaven's Origin Sector!"
Li Yao gasped. "So, it has been in your original plan to let Elder Blood Robe, Elder Nether Spring, and the other demon emperors into the capital city before you cut off the wormhole and watched them fighting a suicidal battle with the Cultivators of the Heaven's Origin Sector?"
"More or less." Jin Tuyi scratched his nose with his feathers. "How could I know that I would be elected as the commander-in-chief of the coalition army of demons? In the Blood Demon Sector, I was the third most powerful man at best, as well as the leader of the Feather Clan. Only in such a way would I be able to gather my enemies together and kill them once and for all!"
Li Yao swallowed and secretly moved his bottom two inches away from Jin Tuyi. He mumbled, "I'm starting to believe that you are truly Elder Nether Spring's 'bosom buddy'. The two of you will definitely be invincible if you join hands!"
Jin Tuyi was not bothered by Li Yao's sarcasm. "Other than clearing all the obstacles for me, Elder Nether Spring had another important function, which was to establish a 'highway' to the capital city of the Star Glory Federation.
"In the original plan, I never planned to destroy the Eye of Blood Demon to such an extent. But even though it has already been ruined, it can still be repaired sooner or later.
"Once it is repaired, we will have a venomous dagger that can stab into the heart of the Heaven's Origin Sector at any time!
"Of course, you may think that, after the loss of tremendous demon emperors and elites, and if the Heaven's Origin Sector already learns the pattern of our attack, the second invasion will definitely not work out.
"Yes, it won't work out. But the capital city, and even the prosperous area in the southeast of the federation, will certainly suffer heavy losses!
"The Heaven's Origin Sector has been at peace for too long. Although the fire of war is still burning on the Grand Desolate Plateau, the ordinary people living in the prosperous area in the southeast have not experienced a large-scale war for more than a hundred years.
"Under such circumstances, as the supreme leader of the Blood Demon Sector, if I suggest we sit down and talk in order to reach a truce, do you think the federal government will consider the offer?"
"Absolutely not," replied Li Yao, gritting his teeth. "Under such circumstances, the demon emperors and elite troops in the first wave of attack will certainly not wait and get killed. Even if they must die, they will drag the entire capital city to hell with them! The capital city of the federation will be a living hell, and you will be the biggest criminal. Not a single Cultivator or citizen of the Star Glory Federation will negotiate with you!"
Jin Tuyi smiled again. "Young man, you are wrong again. Do not confuse my identity right now with my identity at that time.
"When I drafted the Red Tide Plan, I never thought that I would become the commander-in-chief of the coalition army of demons one day. At that time, I was merely the third most influential official in the army. The best I could do was propose an unexpected assault. Those who really made the decision and commanded the attack would only be Elder Blood Robe, Elder Nether Spring and the other demon emperors.
"They would be the perpetrators!
"But the perpetrators would have been teleported to the Heaven's Origin Sector during the first teleportation. They would be killed, captured, or on the run.
"At that time, I would be able to blame all the faults on them. They would be the greatest criminals for launching the war and the most insane butchers!
"As for me, I would be the representative of the 'doves' who craved for peace and the last bit of conscience of the Blood Demon Sector."
Jin Tuyi's dustless, white wings grew out of his back again and covered him softly like a sacred garment. "Look. You cannot find a demon who appears more like a 'dove' than I do, can you?"
Although he knew that Jin Tuyi did not utilize any demonic energy, although his crystal bombs had been closely stuck to the opponent's arm, and although he knew that the guy was a terminal patient whose brain was slowly deteriorating, Li Yao could not help but feel chilly from the bottom of his heart.
"By then," Jin Tuyi said casually, "the Star Glory Federation would have just seen the brutality and insanity of the 'hawks' such as Elder Blood Robe and Elder Nether Spring, and they would know that I was a 'dove' whose conscience was not entirely gone. Would they shut the door of dialogue completely and watch me, as a dove, get kicked out of office and replaced by a hawk that was more brutal, insane, and unpredictable?
"This was my plan in the beginning. As long as the dialogue began, the following procedures of the Red Tide Plan would be able to be carried out. I believed that I would lead the entire Blood Demon Sector to a whole different road of renaissance!
"However, man proposes, heaven disposes. Two things were beyond my computation."
There was a vague hint of bitterness in Jin Tuyi's smile. "Firstly, I didn't know that, in the demon race, a second individual had also seen through the situation other than me, and he was also planning a whole different future path for the demons. That was Elder Nether Spring!"
"Elder Nether Spring was not as smart as you," Li Yao observed. "He only learned about the past and the future of the demon race after receiving the legacy of Chaos, but you deduced everything based on nothing."
Jin Tuyi waved his hands. "It doesn't matter. What matters is that Elder Nether Spring's appearance disrupted my original arrangements. To make things worse, I was diagnosed with 'cerebral sclerosis'. Even though my natural life would not end soon, my political life and my unparalleled thinking ability were going to be gone quickly.
"The Spore Stratagem and the cerebral sclerosis pushed me into a precipice. For a moment, I almost lost all hope and felt that there was nothing I could do except watch our race walking to its doom!
"Until you showed up!"